Chapter 7
Daisy
He doesn’t know who I am. How is that even possible? Wait! Did he just say “mate”?
The world spun all around me. I lost my footing and started to fall.
“Shit,” he muttered as he swooped me up into his arms just before I hit the ground.
“I’m okay,” I lied.
A mate? I was definitely not okay.
My parents were mated. I knew the reference within the shifter community, but I didn’t really know what that exactly meant. What did he expect from me?
In that moment I felt like a stupid little girl. I’d never even kissed a boy before. In my entire life I had only had one little girl crush and that had been forever ago in the before everything changed part of my life.
I looked up at him. He was big where I was small. He was muscular and fit. I stayed in good shape from the performances I did, but not like that.
When he lifted me into his arms as if I weighed nothing at all, I grabbed hold of him. My hand didn’t even come close to wrapping around his forearm. And I could feel his tight muscles beneath several layers of clothing.
My body was tingling all over with unfamiliar sensations.
Mate.
“You said that already.”
“Said what?” he asked.
“Mate. I’m not an idiot, I do know what that means. You don’t have to repeat it.”
“I didn’t,” he insisted.
Mine
This time I had been watching him. The guy’s lips hadn’t moved and I realized it wasn’t his voice I was hearing.
Mate, a voice growled in my head.
My eyes widened.
“What the hell is happening?” I asked aloud.
He smirked. “Is your wolf as vocal as mine right now?”
“My wolf? She can talk?”
“Sort of. It’s usually like talking to a neanderthal in one syllable responses, but yeah. Have you never heard her before?”
I shook my head, a little freaked out by the situation. Was this because of the bond? Or could she always talk and I just hadn’t heard her before? Ronnie never mentioned this possibility before.
I’d always felt my wolf’s emotions. I knew when she was angry or happy, but I didn’t know she could actually talk to me.
Mate, she growled in my head once more.
Oh boy. I was in way over my head.
When I’d stepped off that bus in the middle of the night, it was a giant leap toward freedom and taking control of my own life. This did not feel like control.
A mate? What the hell was I supposed to do with a mate?
“Are you okay?” he asked me in a deep voice that seemed to awaken something within me.
“I-I’m fine,” I stuttered.
Was I?
No. I was anything but fine.
“Where are the rest of your things? I’ll gather them and then we really have to get the hell out of here.”
“What things?”
“Bags? Clothes? A coat?”
I blanched and shook my head. This wasn’t planned in any way. I’d grabbed absolutely nothing.
“It’s just me,” I confessed.
He cursed under his breath then set me down on my feet, hesitating to ensure I wasn’t going to fall again.
“Why the hell would you come all the way out here with nothing but the clothes on your back this time of year?”
I wasn’t sure if he was actually talking to me or just ranting, so I stayed quiet and let him continue.
“If you planned to stay in your fur, food is far more scarce right now and you could starve. And if you spend enough time in your skin, you’ll likely freeze to death. Do you have a death wish? If so just tell me now because I can’t think of any other reason you would be so stupid.”
I flinched and stepped back from him. He was chastising me and sounded way too much like Ronnie. Had I just traded one tyrant for another?
“Whoa. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped like that.” He took off his coat and wrapped it around me. “Really. That was uncalled for. I just can’t understand why on Earth you would think it’s okay to just come out here unprepared.”
“It’s not like I planned it,” I muttered. Then a little louder I said, “It’s a long story.”
“Yeah, you said that already. And some day I wanna hear all about this long story, but right now, I’m just more concerned about getting you home, warm and safe.”
He climbed up onto the horse and then reached down and grabbed my arm. Again, as if I weighed absolutely nothing, he hoisted me up behind him.
I’d never truly ridden a horse before, but I’d sat on enough of them for photo shoots to know what to do at least.
He wrapped my arms around his waist and held them there. That meant I was fully pressed up against his backside. My hands didn’t touch each other, so I fisted his shirt in both hands just for something to hold on to.
“Good girl,” he praised. “Now hold on tight.”
He kicked the horse with his feet and yelled, “Yaw!”
The horse took off at a full sprint.
I squealed and grabbed hold even tighter for fear I was going to fly off the backend of this thing. Completely terrified, I closed my eyes, buried my face into his shirt, and prayed I would survive this.
We rode like that for hours. Not that it felt like hours, but I could tell by the sun that time was passing by quickly.
I was grateful for his coat and felt bad about taking it.
My hands were as cold as ice, but the rest of me formed a cozy cocoon between this man and his coat.
He was taking the brunt of the wind and cold, though as we stopped and dismounted, I realized he had a handkerchief fastened around his face.
I supposed it helped buffer the cold air a bit at least. From my position behind him, I hadn’t had to worry about that because his entire body provided a barricade for me.
I stretched out my hands, flexing and fisting them before rubbing them together and bringing them up to my mouth to blow on them.
“Sorry about that. I don’t have a spare pair of gloves and if I give these to you, I’m not sure I can get us back safely. Kind of need to feel my fingers to guide Clementine here.”
We hadn’t spoken in hours. How could we with the wind howling in our ears?
“It’s okay,” I told him. “Do you need your coat back?”
“No,” he barked. Then cleared his throat.
“You keep it. Having you wrapped around me keeps me warm enough. We’re only stopping for a few minutes.
I need to stretch and check on the horse.
She seems to be holding up okay, but I do not want to push her so hard we end up stuck out here or worse, she gets hurt in the process. ”
“Cool,” I said, awkwardly.
I didn’t know what else to say to him or even how to talk to him. The only men I truly interacted with was Ronnie and my band, but that was very different from this.
He seemed perfectly content not to talk, which only made the silence between us even more uncomfortable.
“Um, you said the horse’s name is Clementine?”
“Yeah. This is Clementine. She’s not really my horse. Travis is repairing a broken shoe on mine so I’m just borrowing her.”
So there are others nearby. Logically, I knew that because I’d instinctively recognized the moment I entered Pack land and that meant there was a Pack nearby no matter how isolated I felt out here.
“And do you have a name?” I asked him.
He gave me a devilish smile. “Cruz. You?”
Was he really asking me for my name? Had anyone ever done that before?
“Uh, Daisy.”
I waited, expecting him to put all the pieces together and freak out. Instead, he just contemplated it for a moment, shook his head, and nodded.
“Daisy. Pretty name for a pretty girl. It suits you.”
My jaw dropped open in surprise. Had I landed in some weird alternate universe?
In my world there didn’t seem to be a person on Earth who didn’t know who I was.
Even in the earlier years, if I tried to sneak out and do anything normal, it was met by a mob of hysterical fans.
They meant well and I appreciated them, but since the day I left my Pack to embrace my dreams, I’d not encountered anyone who didn’t recognize me.
“Daisy Brooks,” I blurted out.
“Okay, well it’s nice to meet you, Daisy Brooks.”
Nothing. There was no recognition of my name whatsoever. Who was this guy?
It wasn’t that I was being egotistical, I was just genuinely shocked. It felt as if the entire world knew my name and recognized me. So why the hell didn’t my mate?
“Uh, where are we going exactly?” I asked.
“Back home, and hopefully before the storm arrives. I do have a house, Daisy. A big one.”
“But where?”
“Oh, Collier. I told you that you’re in Collier territory.”
“So that’s the name of the town too?”
“Yup. Collier, Wyoming. Best little town in the country. You’re going to love it.”
“And do people in this town like music?”
“Sure. Not really my thing, but most of them love it, especially country.”
“But not you?”
How could I possibly be mated to a man who hates music?
“I don’t hate it. I just don’t really care about it either. If it’s on, it’s on. But I’m not going to go seek it out or turn on the radio or anything. I know, I’ve been told it’s weird. But just not my thing I guess. I take it you like music?”
“Um, yeah, you could definitely say that.”
I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or disturbed about his thoughts on music and the fact that he genuinely had no idea who I was.
“Just need to rest Clementine for a few more minutes and then we’ll be back on our way. I don’t want to completely wear her out and wind up leaving us stranded out here. I thought we’d have to slow down with the both of us, but I don’t think you weigh enough for her to even notice.”
I knew I was on the petite side, but the way he talked made me feel like a small child or something.
Or maybe that was me projecting my own fears on him.
Cruz was a real man, and I’d never even mastered what to do with a boy.
I completely missed those formative years and prayed he didn’t expect mate-like things from me.
My cheeks burned at the thought.
“Come here. Your cheeks are very red, a sign the cold air is biting. I can help warm you up before we head out.”
He pulled me toward him and started running his hands up and down over the jacket.
“Just need to get your circulation flowing again,” he explained.